|
|
|
|
|
GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
IS LUCY LIU A HEROINE OR A CURSE?
he isn't exactly playing Suzie Wong, but actress Lucy Liu has chagrined Asian Americans nevertheless. As Ling Woo of Fox's Ally McBeal, she spouts lines like, "A woman hasn't got true control of a man until her hand is on the dumb stick," and, "There's nothing I enjoy more than seeing a happy couple and coming between them." The character is a self-described "tramp" who is simultaneously addicted to casual sex and uses sex to have her way with men. Being a creature of American TV, Ling's sexual encounters are never with Asian men, only adding fuel to the fire.
But some think Liu deserves credit for having built near-icon status for a strong Asian female character out of the scraps she was initially thrown in her first Ally McBeal appearance in September 1998. Ling Woo was evidently to have been scenery for the Nelle Porter character but stole the spotlight and, thanks to a killer kiss, quickly became a regular.
Liu's latter-day dragon lady has been deemed so compelling by American TV audiences that she often shares top billing with Calista Flockhart. Her overnight notoriety won her a lead in the Charlie's Angels movie in which she kicked ass, literally and figuratively, on par with the far better-paid Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore. Liu also landed the female lead in Jackie Chan's comic western Shanghai Noon and the role of a mafia dominatrix in the Mel Gibson flick Payback.
Her sexual roles opposite mostly non-Asians have led many Asian Americans to call Liu a sellout. The facts suggest otherwise. Her family immigrated from China and settled in Queens where Lucy was born December 2, 1968. The area began its transformation from an Italian neighborhood to an Asian one as she entered grade school and Liu went through an identity crisis in the normal quest to fit in with peers. Upon graduating from Stuyvesant High, she spent an unhappy year at NYU, then transferred to Michigan at Ann Arbor where she managed to fit acting, dancing and singing into a degree program in Asian languages. She also studied an Indonesian martial art called Kali-Escrima-Silat. She speaks fluent Mandarin.
None of that matters much, of course, to the countless Asian American women who suffer unwanted attention based on Liu's portrayal of the sexual predator Ling Woo. But some AA women are grateful that she has at least helped them shed the image of passive, submissive wallflowers. Many AA, of course, resent Liu for playing roles that reinforce the old stereotype of Asian women as being available to non-Asian men even as they applaud her for showing Asians to be English-speaking members of American society.
All of which begs the question, is Lucy Liu a heroine or a curse for Asian American women?
This interactive article is closed to new input.
Discussions posted during the past year remain available for browsing.
CONTACT US
|
ADVERTISING INFO
© 1996-2013 Asian Media Group Inc
No part of the contents of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission.
|
|
|
|
WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
She's alright if you like the sneaky looking ones.
Kind of funny how 5000+ years back
the only woman in Egypt is from the
far east. Oh well, I guess that's why they call it hollywood and not reality.
Hope she doesn't end up being called Kelly Liu.
huu76
Saturday, April 06, 2002 at 07:22:21 (PST)
Forget Lucy! what do people think of Kelly Hu?! She is female lead in the scorpion king, thoughts any one???
kfan
Thursday, April 04, 2002 at 12:55:55 (PST)
I wish that were true, AC Dropout. I honestly do. I'd be making a lot of requests myself if it worked that way. Unfortunately (in this case, and very fortunately indeed in others), the government does not control the media, and the media is in no way responsible to uphold the ethics the government subscribes to. Generally speaking, the government can only pressure the media, and run the very real risk of being ignored. Believe me, I wish that the general population had more direct influence on the media. It disgusts me to think that essentially, tv is a medium for advertisements, as the advertisers are the ones paying for it.
Schiavona
Saturday, March 30, 2002 at 13:39:22 (PST)
Schiavona,
That is correct that in a majority situation the minority group will get the short end of the stick.
However, the USA is founded on the principle of civil liberties and social equality, which some white truly beleive in. Which in turn allows minorities to request that these founding principles to be applied to all of us, even though, these principle were original meant only to apply to Whites being prosecuted by the British.
So even if we do believe that Lucy Liu is being type cast in a very biased way towards asians. We should be able to request that such bias casting be balance with other casting to balance out the asian image in the media.
AC Dropout
Monday, March 25, 2002 at 07:41:43 (PST)
Lucy Liu is not a curse or a heroine. She's a woman out to make a living in Hollywood.
Is she beautiful? That's in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I think she's cute.
So what if she acts opposite white or black men? Everyone getting upset with her not being cast opposite Asian men, are you forgetting Jackie Chan? I haven't watched too many movies or t.v. shows with Lucy Lui, but I do know she was cast opposite one Asian male, and that's Jackie Chan. I do believe he is a man, an Asian man at that. I think many of you are also forgetting that there aren't many Asian male actors being cast in Hollywood (or Asian females), which is still a white America.
Yes, she could always try to get involved in Asian movies that are done overseas in an Asian society, but from what some of you have said, I doubt that would happen, b/c she's not considered attractive enough by the Asian code of beauty.
Lucy Liu is a woman who is tearing down the stereotype that many people believe Asian women to portray. Many are happy by this, but hate the fact she plays into a white man's fantasy. You can't have it both ways. Again, Hollywood is predominately what . . . WHITE! Get over it. She's out to make a living for herself. If she didn't want to be cast in such roles, and if she was offended, do you think she would allow herself to be cast in these roles? And if she is offended, why hasn't she left Hollywood behind for another career? I guess the money is just too good to pass up.
Someone made the statement: "I can't wait for a day when the only asians we see on tv are asian guys and those asian guys are only with white girls."
Goodness, someone is bitter. Do you wish that more white women would find you attractive and run you down as their idea sex object? Just curious.
lilli98
lilli98@collegeclub.com
Saturday, March 23, 2002 at 15:06:35 (PST)
Ah..actually, AC Dropout, you said it for me, so I hardly need say it myself. But just to make sure that everyone noticed this:
"Just like when you watch HK films. Whites are always protrayed as evil villians or bad accented idiots. Even pure white women are treated negatively." I've seen more than enough HK films to know that this is true. It's also true in a great deal of Anime. Why? Because there the majority is Asian, and whites are the easier targets. The absolute truth is that it doesn't stop me from enjoying the movies. Reality is that there are way more whites here than Asians, and so the Asians get the short end of the stick. The reverse is true in Asia.
And Asian Male, as for white women not wanting to give up the "privilege" of dating white men...I don't mean to be insulting, but that's very funny and very untrue. In a predominantly white culture, whites don't think of themselves as "white"...they're just the default. Just like you probably wouldn't actively think about your Asianness much if you lived in China. It wouldn't matter to you, I shouldn't imagine. White girls don't go out with white guys because they're white. They go out with them because they're THERE. I don't think any white girl ever saw a guy in a club and thought "Ooh, he's cute...and he's WHITE, too!" Only a very racist white girl would ever actually think to herself "I'm never going to date anyone but a white guy." And that does NOT represent most of us.
Schiavona
Friday, March 22, 2002 at 22:07:24 (PST)
NEWEST COMMENTS |
EARLIER COMMENTS
|